DOOLY COUNTY, Ga. — Dooly County High School Junior Christian Murphy makes flying a drone look easy, so it's hard to believe it's his first year doing it.
"My teacher, Mr. Jelks, he sat me down one day and he started talking to me about the drone team and all the opportunities we could have, and that's what made me want to join it," Murphy said.
Before long, he was ready for takeoff.
"There's different types of ways you can fly a drone. You can program them, you can use a controller, so that was the first day. The second step, he actually put us in the field 'cause he had a lot of faith in us, so he actually put us in the field and we started flying the drones like right away," Murphy said.
"These kids need to have access to different types of technology like drones and see that there's more out there than just right here in this rural area of Vienna," Jelks said.
Agriculture students use drones to increase production and monitor crops. The broadcast students use drone footage for their newscasts.
"We used the drones to put the intro together for our Bobcat Nation news show," Jelks said.
Jayla Smith and Jadaya Lucas are part of the school's first drone team which competed in a west Georgia regional competition.
"We had to actually put in what time the drones would move, what time it would turn around, and what time it would land, so we had to do that ourselves," Lucas said.
"Our team placed first in the racing event, so we had, like, obstacles that you had to drive the drones through and we came in first in that and we were really proud of ourselves cause it was the first competition," Smith said.
They'll learn how to build drones for their next competition. Murphy says their skills are anything but beginner's luck.
"The drone team has many more wins coming and we're headed to the top," Murphy said.
David West with Dooly County Schools says they bought six drones costing about $2,000 each.
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